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Here are the Submarine Cables Funded by Cloud Giants

As their global bandwidth needs grow, operators of hyper-scale cloud platforms -- Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon -- have started to play a much bigger role in consortia that build intercontinental submarine cables. In some cases, these cloud companies have been signing on as major customers of future cables, thereby enabling cable builders to finance the projects. In other cases -- and we're seeing more and more of this lately -- these companies get involved directly, as the projects' investors and owners.

These investments by hyper-scale companies and by other cable builders looking to serve their bandwidth needs have spurred a submarine cable construction boom. One of the potential outcomes of the boom is more demand for data center space in facilities operated by the likes of Equinix or Digital Realty Trust, among others, which can provide network access to these new connectivity routes.

And here's the list of submarine cable construction projects hyper-scale cloud companies have helped fund in recent years. Click on the maps to enlarge (all data and maps courtesy of the telecommunications market research firm Telegeography):

Unity/EAC-PacificHyper-scale cloud user: GoogleRFS: March 2010Cable Length: 9,620 kmOwners: Telstra, Google, Global Transit, SingTel, KDDI, Airtel (Bharti)Notes: Unity is jointly owned by a consortium of six companies. Telstra owns two fiber pairs that the company refers to as EAC-Pacific. The remaining three fiber pairs are jointly owned by the other consortium members.Landing Points:-Chikura, Japan-Redondo Beach, California, United StatesSource: www.telegeography.com